—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Jon Elster once wrote that “… the task of constitution-making generally emerges in conditions that are likely to work against good constitution-making.”[1] Passion – as he puts it – prevails over reason in such turbulent circumstances. When it comes to other forms of substantial constitutional change, such as what

—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Comparative constitutional law is now faced with a rich debate over the scope, limits, and consequences of impeachment proceedings. Since the Brazilian President Dilma Roussef was temporarily suspended from office and thereby replaced by the acting President Michel Temer after the Senate had voted to begin an impeachment trial

—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília In 2007, Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, an Argentinian professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote that “impeachments are likely when the mass media systematically investigate and expose political scandals and when the president fails to keep tight control over Congress… When a broad social coalition takes the street

—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasilia Judicial review of the legislative process is certainly one of the mo­­st sensitive areas of the relationship between the Judiciary and Parliament. In comparative law, there is no clear trend. In the United States, the enrolled bill doctrine, which claims that courts are required to accept that “a bill

—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasilia, Brazil Impeachment has become a common word these days. Recently, examples of impeachment proceedings appeared in Madagascar,[1] Thailand,[2] Indonesia,[3] Myanmar,[4] Philippines,[5] and Paraguay.[6] In Latin America, the 1990s and 2000s were clearly marked by an “unprecedented wave of impeachments” proceedings,[7] including in Brazil (1992), Venezuela (1993), Colombia (1996), Paraguay

—Dominic J Nardi, Jr, University of Michigan Department of Political Science Myanmar’s[1] constitution – adopted after a controversial referendum in May 2008 – created the country’s first constitutional court in half a century. Initially, few if any observers believed the Constitutional Tribunal would play a significant role. However, within a few months, the tribunal seemed to be

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